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last chance to see: the weight of lightness - ink art at M+

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Ink is the principle medium in Asian art and most commonly represented by calligraphy and landscape painting. Ink is a discipline with its own system of technique, vocabulary, philosophy and circulation, which has entered into a transnational dialogue. Ink aesthetics (aesthetinks) have become a source of inspiration for contemporary writers, dancers and even composers. And since the mid twentieth-century, this M+ exhibit reminds us, many Asian artists have re-examined and re-evaluated ink in search of techniques that best express their time and personal experience.

In matters calligraphic, this evolution bears particular scrutiny, as the 'written character' has passed from finite meaning and practical communication into the realm of abstraction in which the characters are unrecognisable and meaning elusive.

Notable in this respect is Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze's large scale calligraphy, (below), Spirited, like a far-journeying steed; Floating like a duck on water (2002). The work shows her loyalty to the Chinese written word, yet she pushes it to abstraction. Her virtuosic, expressive strokes the signature expression of ink's dream and dilemma. Contrast that with Hsiao Chin's early painting, (left), Huen-Tuen (1962), which depicts a controlled state of chaos at the beginning of the universe. Both remind us of the fine line between ink and meaning, the physical and intangible, and how its boundless potential can be articulated through a range of poetic, metaphorical, and sensorial interpretations, be that in writing, in rocks, flowers, trees and everything in between.

last chance to see: the weight of lightness - ink art at M+

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Ink is the principle medium in Asian art and most commonly represented by calligraphy and landscape painting. Ink is a discipline with its own system of technique, vocabulary, philosophy and circulation, which has entered into a transnational dialogue. Ink aesthetics (aesthetinks) have become a source of inspiration for contemporary writers, dancers and even composers. And since the mid twentieth-century, this M+ exhibit reminds us, many Asian artists have re-examined and re-evaluated ink in search of techniques that best express their time and personal experience.

In matters calligraphic, this evolution bears particular scrutiny, as the 'written character' has passed from finite meaning and practical communication into the realm of abstraction in which the characters are unrecognisable and meaning elusive.

Notable in this respect is Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze's large scale calligraphy, (below), Spirited, like a far-journeying steed; Floating like a duck on water (2002). The work shows her loyalty to the Chinese written word, yet she pushes it to abstraction. Her virtuosic, expressive strokes the signature expression of ink's dream and dilemma. Contrast that with Hsiao Chin's early painting, (left), Huen-Tuen (1962), which depicts a controlled state of chaos at the beginning of the universe. Both remind us of the fine line between ink and meaning, the physical and intangible, and how its boundless potential can be articulated through a range of poetic, metaphorical, and sensorial interpretations, be that in writing, in rocks, flowers, trees and everything in between.